An assessment of wind power generation potential of 2 Built Environment Wind Turbine ( BEWT ) systems in 3 Fort Beaufort , South Africa

The physical and economic sustainability of using Built Environment Wind Turbine 10 (BEWT) systems depends on the wind resource potential of the candidate site. Therefore, it is crucial 11 to carry out a wind resource assessment prior to deployment of the BEWT. The assessment results 12 can be used as a referral tool for predicting the performance and lifespan of the BEWT in the given 13 built environment. To date, there is limited research output on BEWTs in South Africa with available 14 literature showing a bias towards utility-scale or conventional ground based wind energy systems. 15 This study aimed to assess wind power generation potential of BEWT systems in Fort Beaufort using 16 the Weibull distribution function. The results show that Fort Beaufort wind patterns can be 17 classified as fairly good and that BEWTs can best be deployed at 15m for a fairer power output as 18 roof height wind speeds require BEWT of very low cut-in speed of at most 1.2ms. 19